EDITORIAL: We can all toast an end to the war on fun

People toasting with a glass of beer.JACK CUSANO / Postmedia, file

Slowly, oh so slowly, Alberta liquor laws are evolving.

As one of its first acts, the province’s new UCP government has decided to lift the drinking ban in the eight remaining provincial parks that still prohibit alcohol consumption – Aspen Beach, Miquelon Lake, Garner Lake, Dillberry Lake, Pigeon Lake, Whitney Lakes, Jarvis Bay and Wabamun.

Premier Jason Kenney said on Thursday his government was “ending the war on fun” in advance of the Victoria Day long weekend by making it legal to consume alcohol in campgrounds at all of Alberta’s provincial parks.

This is really just a formalization of what was already occurring. Many (most?) campers were having a drink or two already, they were just concealing it in coffee cups or thermoses.

Still, the relaxation is welcome.

The UCP will also permit summer festival organizers to allow patrons to consume adult beverages anywhere within the festival site, not just in designated beer gardens. This was already technically possible, but the cost of extra security required to permit “open service” meant most festival organizers simply stuck with the old controlled-service model.

And later this summer, the province will experiment with allowing liquor at provincial picnic sites and perhaps even in municipal parks. As Kenney pointed out, all of this is very common practice in Europe and relaxed drinking regulations there have not caused the world to come to an end.

Our liquor laws have been evolving since the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. In the name of welcoming visitors from less-uptight countries, bars then were no longer required to have carpeted floors; they no longer had to be connected to hotels or restaurants and they could serve drinks on Sundays and past 1:00 a.m. on other days.

Liquor service on sidewalk patios was also allowed for the first time, a rule that, in turn, made possible Calgary’s “Red Mile” and Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue parties during NHL playoffs.

The Notley government also took several steps forward by making it possible for restaurant and bar owners to operate outdoor drinking spaces that were near their main establishments, even if not immediately adjacent.

Local craft beer and spirits could be sold at farmers’ markets and liquor producers could operate tasting rooms.

For the first time, too, children were permitted to join their parents at outdoor bars or beer gardens (although, of course, the kids count not drink alcohol). Patios no longer had to be separated by a fence from neighbouring sidewalks. And customers searching for a table didn’t have to go into the restaurant first, then be led back out to the patio by a hostess.

After some hemming and hawing, the NDP also allowed bars to serve liquor early in the morning for “football” loving fans during last summer’s World Cup in Russia.

One caution about Thursday’s changes, though. The park ban was not the result of Prohibition-era prudishness, but rather a response to out-of-control partying in the ‘80s and ‘90s that ruined the peaceful enjoyment of the parks by family campers. We hope the government has laid on more Mounties and wardens in case things get out of hand this weekend.

Our parks are not just party rooms.

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